War against Maoists hit by complacency

VARANASI: Non-utilisation of funds has hampered efforts to check Maoist menace in Chandauli, Mirzapur and Sonbhadra. The Chandauli police have failed to utilise even 50% of the fund meant for community policing and strengthening village security committees. Even the fund meant for publicity of government schemes and programmes is lying unutilised.

The Chandauli police are yet to spend more than 50% of the fund meant for paying the wages of special police officers (SPOs). The funds earmarked for training of security personnel deployed in trouble-prone areas too have not been utilised in Chandauli and Mirzapur districts. IG, zone, Prakash D, however, does not seem to be perturbed over the issue. On Wednesday, he said, "Funds allocated under the security related scheme (SRE) would be utilised by the end of the financial year." However, he was unable to specify the manner in which the funds would be utilised within the next 18 days.

The Union home ministry allocates funds under the security related scheme (SRE) to Maoist-affected states every year. The state has three districts to utilize these funds. The funds allocated under SRE are mainly used for maintenance and fuel of vehicles operating in trouble-prone areas, publicity of government schemes, training of security personnel, purchase of machines, paying compensation to kin of persons killed by Maoists and also security personnel, community policing, strengthening of village security committees, wages for special police officers, hiring choppers or vehicles and construction and strengthening of security posts, towers and police buildings.

The Maoist problem emerged in this region by mid-nineties and reached its extreme by 2004. During this period, many forest department staff and anti-Maoist people were killed, SLRs were looted in attacks at PAC camp at Khoradih in Mirzapur and 17 PAC and police personnel were killed in a landmine blast at Hinaut Ghat in Naugarh. After these incidents, the state government adopted the strategy of aggression in operation against Maoists and development of backward regions.

To ensure that people were not lured away by Maoists the cops focused on community policing, appointing special police officers from among villagers, strengthening village security committee and counter publicity.

These initiatives yielded positive results as after 2004, the Maoists could not execute any destructive plan in the region. However, the lull seems to have resulted in laxity seeping into police activity.